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For those that don't know DTI is an mri scan thay stands for diffusion tension imaging that (as I understand) tracks and maps individual neurons between brain regions. Basically this is very detailed structural mri and will reveal the underlying causes of DPD. Functional imaging isn't as relevant as this. This study showed the connection of 3 regions was statistically significant. They were:

Middle temporal gyrus: contemplating distance, recognition of known faces, and accessing word meaning while reading. Makes sense as to recognising our own face in the mirror and others
Calcarine gyrus: (no I hadn't heard of it either) The calcarine sulcus is where the primary visual cortex (V1) is concentrated. Derealization- check.
Superior frontal gyrus: superior frontal gyrus is involved in self-awareness, in coordination with the action of the sensory system. It is also involved with laughter. When stimulated people laughed and labelled unfunny things around them as funny (yes please!). So this is the core depersonalization and anhedonia/numbness experienced. I duno about others here but I rarely get a good belly laugh or have hysterical laughter.
Thoughts?

 

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Whoops. Here's the link:

https://ww5.aievolution.com/hbm1701/index.cfm?do=abs.viewAbs&abs=2738

So my feeling is find drugs/activities thay stimulate these regions

 

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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18275558

Study showing modafinil increases blood flow to bilateral superior frontal and left middle temporal gyrus... 2/3 regions isn't bad. Presumably increased blood flow over time would increase structural connectivity.. a bit like increases blood flow to your biceps when lifting weights. Can't find any hard science connecting these two, but it is presumed that functional increases over time lead to structural changes..

 

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The original posted study also showed lower FA values between basal ganglia and the superior parietal gyrus. The basal ganglia being involved with motivation and reward.. so need to increase it's activity somehow.

This older study:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4275327/

shows smaller regions:

Cuneus: Visual centre

Caudate nucleus: learning (memory) and reward part of basal ganglia

Thalamus: the regulation of consciousness, sleep, and alertness

 

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"Using PET brain imaging the researchers found that dopamine levels in a part of the brain called the striatum were lowest in people who smoke more cannabis and those who began smoking marijuana at a younger age."

Also CBD oil has been shown to increase blood flow in the basal ganglia.. perhaps relevant and seems to be the newest region of interest in DPD

 

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DFI: Diffusion Tensor Imaging.

"So my feeling is find drugs/activities that stimulate these regions"

So far, we have found cannabis, mescaline, psilocybin, LSD, MDMA.....

 

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Yeh autocorrect did me over again there!

Yeh weird you should mention those drugs. They act as agonists on the 5ht1a receptor, which is also what CBD does. I guess I'm technically microdosing that but it is having a very positive effect. Do those drugs affect the Calcarine gyrus, superior frontal gyrus and middle temporal gyrus?

Also unsure if I misinterpreted the results. But the lower FA (unsure what that means) in the basal ganglia and superior parietal gyrus was correlated to DP symptom severity. So I guess that means that have a lower connection. Anyway CBD increases blood flow to the BG so this MAY be why it is helping me... either that or its autoimmune or Lyme or god knows what. I'm just glad I finally found some relief

 

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Another interesting one.. I stopped the CBD fyi as I believe it was numbing emotions which I don't think is helpful to recovery.. It also stopped dreaming, which I think it involved in subconsciously processing emotions.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10192823

"Changes in [11C]raclopride BP in the ventral striatum correlated with depersonalization associated with euphoria"... unsure about the 'euphoria' part and also this is an old study. But basically the study showed Psilocybin (magic mushrooms) to increase activity in the basal ganglia which from this recent DTI study (start of this post) is what is needed in DPD.. The other issue is this was a study to induce psychosis, however the definition of psychosis is quite broad. Derealization could be seen as a psychosis as there is loss of touch with reality- so to me that isn't as scary as it sounds. I am assuming none of these patients developed psychosis but don't know that.

Again the dangers are real and I am going to be careful when I take this.. I will be stepping it up gradually taking 3 days off after each dose. If my intuition tells me to stop then I will. My belief is that when people take shrooms to have a good trip and are then faced with a horrific truth about themselves/their past, they reject this which may lead to psychosis.. In most situations if people want a 'good trip' they are at a party/festival etc and in no situation to be processing emotional trauma. I have no evidence for this, hence why I am taking baby steps. If I start to develop signs of psychosis then obviously I will stop.

The other thing is I am going into this EXPECTING a bad trip.. I am expecting to have to face ugly truths about myself. I already know the worst of it, I am not going into my life story here but I had a truly horrific childhood. So I am expecting to have to face that. I have tried to connect to those memories emotional through the focusing technique (gendlin), meditation, therapy and TRE... nothing has helped me to connect to them. So I appreciate and understand the risk but am prepared as I can be to 'let go' when shit hits the fan, not fight it or try and deny the truth